After an emotional public meeting this week about the extent and remedy of hazardous chemicals at Elmira High School, polluted sites in Tompkins and Broome counties are coming up for review.

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Kris Manns speaks during a question-and-answer period at a meeting May 2 about pollution removal at Elmira High School.(Photo: Tom Wilber/Staff photo)

Last Wednesday’s informational meeting at Elmira drew close to 200 people at a banquet hall at the Holiday Inn. It grew tense and confrontational after officials reviewed plans to truck soil contaminated with hazardous waste from the school.

Residents and parents demanded more attention to the cleanup and challenged the panel of environmental and health officials on the lack of urgency of the problem. The challenges were frequently encouraged by applause and shouts.

Although Wednesday’s meeting was unusually caustic, an open exchange with the public is critical, said Sean Mahar, assistant commissioner for Public Affairs at the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

All sites have a process that allows the public to weigh in at various stages, including comments and questions via email. People interested in particular sites can also sign up to get facts sheets by email to keep them abreast of developments.

Public meetings are mandated for decisions relating to sites at certain stages in the state’s remediation programs. Beyond that, the agency has discretion for adding meetings to its schedule and frequently does, said Mike Ryan, director of the DEC’s Division of Environmental Remediation.

“If we sense a lot of interest then we schedule them,” Ryan said. “That was certainly the case with Elmira.”

In Tompkins County, the DEC is now calling for written public comment, including emails, on Morse Industrial – a site covering 100 acres in the South Hill portion of Ithaca with a vast industrial legacy beginning with Morse Industrial Corp. in 1906.

Much of the pollution moving through the ground at Morse began with machines without drip pans used to manufacture automotive components and power transmission equipment, according to DEC records.

In the mid-20th century, when Borg-Warner Corp. operated the plant, it was common practice to clean oil from the floors with solvents and flush the mess into the floor drains and leaky sewer pipes. Pollution at the site includes TCE, an industrial solvent that can cause illnesses ranging from cancer to brain damage, and other hazardous chemicals.

Testing at Morse has found 16 “Areas of Concern” with soil contaminated above standards, according to a DEC report issued this week. The current proposal calls for excavating between 4,000 and 5,000 tons of contaminated soils from 15 areas.

Officials are also proposing test pits along portions of the sanitary sewer beneath the buildings to see if more cleanup is required. More than 60 homes north and west of the plant have been fitted with systems to divert chemical vapors from under their foundations.

No public meeting was required for this phase of the Morse site cleanup, Ryan said, although there may be one in the future.

In Broome County, cleanup of Vestal’s drinking water Well 1-1 is entering a new $14.5 million phase, according to records from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Plans – now under design -- call for thermally treating the ground at the industrial area near Stage Road to remove TCE pollution that’s seeping into the well.

This pump station in Vestal was used to extract TCE that contaminated a nearby water supply. Funding for Superfund sites like this one would be cut under President Trump's budget.(Photo: Tom Wilber)

In the 28 years since the water well was taken off line and added to the EPA’s national priorities list in 1990, the EPA has spent $11.3 million cleaning the site, which borders the Vestal Rail Trail.

A report detailing the effectiveness of the cleanup and future steps is due out this month, according to Elías Rodríguez, an EPA spokesman. It will be available on line and at the Vestal Public Library.

The Elmira High School cleanup, paid for and executed by Unisys Corp, calls for 35 to 40 trucks a day six days a week working over the course of the summer to remove 28,000 tons of soil contaminated with PCBs from under one of the parking areas and bus loop. The company has not disclosed the cost.

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The DEC's Tim Schneider talks at a community meeting in Elmira Wednesday night, May 2, 2018, about a plan to remove soil contaminated with hazardous waste from Elmira High School(Photo: Staff Photo/Tom Wilber)

Plans to clean elevated levels of PCBs and other hazardous waste from under playing fields, the track and elsewhere at the school are expected to coincide with yet-to-be scheduled capital improvements. A major point of contention involves the schedule to complete the cleanup.

DEC and health officials' assurance that buried chemicals, including PCBs and TCE, pose no health threat because people are not exposed to them was repeatedly and loudly challenged at Wednesday’s meeting.

Andy Patros, a long-time resident and former Chemung County legislator, is spearheading a citizens group to engage all stakeholders, including neighbors, local elected local officials, school officials, Unisys and state environmental and health officials.

“We need to create a structure of advocacy and information sharing,” Patros said. “We just haven’t had an organized community effort. And we need that.”